PRESENTATION IN BUSINESS

“Where shall I begin, please your
majesty?” she asked. “Begin at the
beginning,” the king said, very
gravely, “and go on till you come to
the end. Then stop.”

– Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderlan

Presentation is a very vital and primary measure of communication in business, whether informative or persuasive. These are set of ideas spoken to an audience through paper or electronic slides. In presentation, there are some challenges faced by the presenter which includes:

• Fear of speaking
• Overreliance on slides
• A failure to engage
• Misconception about persuasion

In analyzing communication, a manager must understand a purpose of presentation and audience characteristics relevant to it, and then using the resources of reason, emotion, and character, to create the message. Analysis informs both the message, content, and the delivery of the presentation.

In persuasive communication, a presenter must strive to adopt a desired belief or an attitude to gain the consent and support of the audience. When a presenter preoccupies himself with their own thoughts and feelings, they tend to lose sight of the fact that in a quest to satisfy their needs they must satisfy the needs of their audience. The core of persuasive business presentation is argument, and argument include decision, evaluation, and diagnosis. However, persuasion consist of more than reason (emotion). To improve persuasion abilities, you need to learn how to shape audience members’ attitude towards you, one must keep in mind that an audience always has an attitude towards a speaker, making sure to foster attitude towards himself. For persuasion in business has two essential components: knowledge and credibility.

A presenter must make sure to organize his presentation content known as the ICAA organizer; this organizer come in four part which are:

• Issue
• Conclusion
• Argument
• Action

While preparing for a presentation, one must not fail to plan. In planning, take consideration of the length of the presentation, as audience become restless and less attentive when a presentation is lengthy and bulky. This forfeits the purpose of the presentation even before conclusion. A presenter must also be conscious of time, and this can be done by having a moderate length of work. There is also a need to generate ideas by capturing ideas however and whenever it comes to mind and taking notes of key points. This can be done in whatever medium comfortable, be it paper, word processing or mind-mapping software.

For one to make be successful in this art, there must create a presentation plan; plan slides and other media, prepare slides and other media, edit the presentation and lastly practice the presentation. These steps allow you to organically organize your presentation. It checks for clearness, conciseness, grammar and punctuations, direction, purpose, reason etc. It also gives the presenter a second chance to rethink the ideas in case of unnecessary information, and better knowledge of the subject of discussion. It generally makes room for the improvement of the work.

Also keep in mind that in taking the above-mentioned steps (planning the presentation), there is an opportunity for the presenter to add texture, energy, and interest. In this way enriches the presentation by energizing the visual and speech channel. Suffice to note that during the delivery, that is communicating the message, one must avail himself with the following coping mechanisms:

• Welcoming anxiety
• Instruction and practice
• Visualization
• Reframing
• Writing thoughts and feelings
• Positive self-talk
• Stayin in the present